TWO councillors held a street party to celebrate the filling of a two-year-old pothole.

Worthing borough councillors Bob Smytherman and Martin McCabe had previously thrown a bash for the Palatine Road hole’s “second birthday” in December – complete with cake.

Now the Lib Dem duo have got out their balloons and banners again after the nuisance was finally repaired.

Cllr McCabe said he was “chuffed to bits” the pothole had finally been filled.

“It’s taken over two years of us reporting this pothole,” he said.

“I’ve lost count of how many times it’s been repaired, only to sink again.

“It looks like a better repair job this time so we’re hoping this is the end of it.

“If this repair fails, we’ll have to get Bob to sing to it again.”

The pothole had previously been filled by West Sussex County Council in January.

But the repair did not take and a second team tended to the hole earlier last week.

Cllr Smytherman insisted the topic was serious despite his joke protest.

“Every year the county council knows this is going to be a costly problem and ends up drafting more teams in to deal with it,” he said.

“But why don’t they just plan ahead and spend enough money in the first place?

“Every year they put out a press release saying they’ve got some money from the Government or found some money down the back of a sofa for another repair team.

“But you don’t have to be a genius to know their current approach isn’t working.

“Not only had that pothole on Palatine Road celebrated its second birthday, but it had also begun giving birth to other potholes.”

Cllr Smytherman said the county council’s latest budget did not allocate enough funds for resurfacing roads.

“This winter has been worse than previous years,” the Lib Dem said. “We simply need to spend the proper amount of money. Right now they’re not spending nearly enough money to resurface nearly enough roads.

“West Sussex County Council spent £4 million on a settlement with Amey Highways because the council messed up the procurement process.

“So they spent £4 million on a highways firm and didn’t fill a single pothole. It’s time they got a grip.”

A county council spokesman said its highways team had repaired more than 110 potholes each day in January.

“Repairs are only part of the picture,” he said.

“We also resurface whole sections of roads, removing all of the surface and replacing with a new one on top.

“We micro-surface, where a layer of asphalt emulsion is blended with finely crushed stone to seal the road surface and stop further deterioration.

“And we use surface dressing, spraying the road with bitumen binder, followed by a layer of stone chippings which are then rolled in.

“All three methods contribute to our pothole prevention strategy and in 2019 to 2020, we invested a total of £8.9 million treating 806,000m2 of carriageway.

“The draft 2020/21 programme is being finalised but will see further investment.”